Hello Reader,
This is the free version of our weekly newsletter. The premium version has 14 excellent recommendations, on top of these, of what to watch at festivals, virtual cinemas, VOD, and via streaming. We also spotlight several virtual film festivals worth catching worldwide, featuring films we love that have yet to secure distribution (so this may be your only chance to see them!).
In our premium newsletter for members this week, we recommend more virtual film festival screenings, plus additional VOD, virtual cinema, and streaming recommendations. If you become a member now, shoot us an email, and we'll be happy to send you these recommendations, too!
To receive the premium newsletter, become a Film Adventurer member.
The Gimli film festival in Canada is screening several festival favourites worldwide, including Daughter of a Lost Bird and Everything in the End. Neither film has a distributor so this is an excellent opportunity to catch them.
We also recommend catching Pride while it's on iPlayer (and streaming elsewhere). And a TIFF2019 favourite, Lina from Lima is finally streaming in the US and Australia!
Have a friend whom you think would like our newsletter? Feel free to forward this to them and let them know they can sign up for the free version here.
One of the highlights of HotDocs and among the best films to world premiere in 2021, don't miss your chance to see Daughter of a Lost Bird.
Here's an excerpt from Orla's review:
Click here for tickets worldwide.
One of the best films to world premiere in 2021, and still seeking distribution, don't miss your chance to catch it.
Here's an excerpt from Orla's intro to her interview with the director Mylissa Fitzsimmons:
Click here for tickets worldwide.
This highlight of TIFF19 is now available to see!
Here's Orla on the film:
In the opening scenes of María Paz González’s Lina from Lima, the rhythms of everyday life feel almost musical. Quietly, Lina (Magaly Solier), a Peruvian immigrant working as a housekeeper in Chile, goes about her daily life. The noise of Lina’s world are pronounced in the sound mix: A bus trundling along the road; Lina rifling through boxes in her clients home; shoppers walking and chatting in the store. It’s as if Lina is listening for musicality in the mundane. It only makes sense, then, that the film is a musical.
Though Lina from Lima is largely a realist drama, occasionally, Lina’s drab world will explode into flamboyant song and dance. These sequences are over-the-top and fun, as if out of a film much soapier than the one we’re watching, but while they’re fun to experience as they are for Lina, there’s something sad about their fakery. This is Lina’s coping mechanism for the injustice and boredom of real life These sequences are a manifestation of Lina’s daydreams, where life is grand and melodramatic, when really it’s just disappointing. In contrast, the rest of the film lacks any non-diegetic music and the colours are flatter, clearly demarcating Lina’s real and dream world.
Read Orla's interview with the director here.
Emily Garside's pick for one of the Films for the Future in the 100th episode of the Seventh Row podcast, Pride tells a forgotten part of British history and is the story of the power of allyship.
![]() |
Here's an excerpt from my review:
Listen to Dr. Emily Garside on the film here.
In episode 57 of the podcast, we actually talked in depth about Pride and how it fits into the tradition of the British revolution period drama (alongside Suffragette and Misbehaviour).
This is now only available to members.
Become a Film Adventurer Member today, and listen to all 100 episodes of the Seventh Row podcast!
Click here to become a member
Best,
Alex Heeney, Editor-in-Chief
PS Have a friend whom you think would like our newsletter? Feel free to forward this to them and let them know they can sign up here.
Don't want to receive our digest of recommended films? You can unsubscribe to just these emails. You'll still receive relevant updates from us at Seventh Row. Click here to unsubscribe from the digest of recommendations. Don't want any Seventh Row emails? Hit the unsubscribe button below. |
Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
Early in this month’s Reel Ruminators film, the heroine declares: “I don’t want to meet interesting people, I want to be interesting.” That line gives you a sense of the film's tone: witty and searching, with something deeper always lurking beneath the surface. Join us this month for an effervescent trip to France for a film that’s bright, funny, emotionally rich, and full of restless energy. The film, which premiered at Cannes in Critics’ Week, is the first feature from a woman to watch,...
Some films change every time you rewatch them — not because they shift, but because you do. The mark of a great film is that it can meet you again — and offer more. Not just because your perspective has changed, but because the film is rich enough to hold what you couldn’t yet see. This year marks the tenth anniversary of Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years — and we’re celebrating it on the podcast because it’s one of the best films of the century. I’ve watched it at least once a year over the past...
Hello Reader, This week on the podcast, I’m digging into Celine Song’s new film, Materialists, which asks: Is love enough when money is tight? It’s got plenty going for it (that cast! that blocking!), but also tiptoes around the class and money dynamics it sets up. In this episode, I get into where it works, where it falls short, and how it stacks up next to films and shows that explore similar territory (Gossip Girl, Mansfield Park, and more). A few spoilers ahead, especially when I get into...